Many of the most common and deadly diseases afflicting mankind result from or in the presence of undesirable material, most notably blood clots, in the blood vessels and heart chambers. Examples of such diseases include myocardial infarction, stroke, pulmonary embolism, deep venous thrombosis, atrial fibrillation, infective endocarditis, etc. The treatment of some of these conditions, which involve smaller blood vessels, such as myocardial infarction and stroke, has been dramatically improved in recent years by targeted mechanical efforts to remove blood clots from the circulatory system. Other deadly conditions, which involve medium to large blood vessels or heart chambers, such as pulmonary embolism (½ million deaths per year) or deep venous thrombosis (2-3 million cases per year) have not benefited significantly from such an approach. Present treatment for such conditions with drugs or other interventions is not sufficiently effective. As a result, additional measures are needed to help save lives of patients suffering from these conditions.
The circulatory system can be disrupted by the presence of undesirable material, most commonly blood clots, but also tumor, infective vegetations, and foreign bodies, etc. Blood clots can arise spontaneously within the blood vessel or heart chamber (thrombosis) or be carried through the circulation from a remote site and lodge in a blood vessel (thromboemboli).
In the systemic circulation, this undesirable material can cause harm by obstructing a systemic artery or vein. Obstructing a systemic artery interferes with the delivery of oxygen-rich blood to organs and tissues (arterial ischemia) and can ultimately lead to tissue death or infarction. Obstructing a systemic vein interferes with the drainage of oxygen-poor blood and fluid from organs and tissues (venous congestion) resulting in swelling (edema) and can occasionally lead to tissue infarction.
Many of the most common and deadly human diseases are caused by systemic arterial obstruction. The most common form of heart disease, such as myocardial infarction, results from thrombosis of a coronary artery following disruption of a cholesterol plaque. The most common causes of stroke include obstruction of a cerebral artery either from local thrombosis or thromboemboli, typically from the heart. Obstruction of the arteries to abdominal organs by thrombosis or thromboemboli can result in catastrophic organ injury, most commonly infarction of the small and large intestine. Obstruction of the arteries to the extremities by thrombosis or thromboemboli can result in gangrene.
In the systemic venous circulation, undesirable material can also cause serious harm. Blood clots can develop in the large veins of the legs and pelvis, a common condition known as deep venous thrombosis (DVT). DVT arises most commonly when there is a propensity for stagnated blood (long-haul air travel, immobility) and clotting (cancer, recent surgery, especially orthopedic surgery). DVT causes harm by (1) obstructing drainage of venous blood from the legs leading to swelling, ulcers, pain and infection and (2) serving as a reservoir for blood clot to travel to other parts of the body including the heart, lungs (pulmonary embolism) and across a opening between the chambers of the heart (patent foramen ovale) to the brain (stroke), abdominal organs or extremities.
In the pulmonary circulation, the undesirable material can cause harm by obstructing pulmonary arteries, a condition known as pulmonary embolism. If the obstruction is upstream, in the main or large branch pulmonary arteries, it can severely compromise total blood flow within the lungs and therefore the entire body, resulting in low blood pressure and shock. If the obstruction is downstream, in large to medium pulmonary artery branches, it can prevent a significant portion of the lung from participating in the exchange of gases to the blood resulting low blood oxygen and build up of blood carbon dioxide. If the obstruction is further downstream, it can cut off the blood flow to a smaller portion of the lung, resulting in death of lung tissue or pulmonary infarction.
The presence of the undesirable material within the heart chambers can cause harm by obstructing flow or by serving as a reservoir for emboli to other organs in the body. The most common site for obstruction within the heart is in the heart valves. Infective vegetations, a condition known as endocarditis, can cause partial obstruction to flow across a valve before destroying the valve. Patients with prosthetic valves, especially mechanical valves, are particularly prone to valve thrombosis and obstruction. The heart chambers are the most common source of emboli (cardioemboli) to the systemic circulation, including stroke. Emboli tend to arise from areas that are prone to stagnation of blood flow under pathologic conditions. The left atrial appendage in patients with atrial fibrillation is prone to thrombosis, as well as the left ventricular apex in patients with acute myocardial infarction or dilated cardiomyopathy. Infected vegetations or thrombi on the heart valves are also common sources of emboli. Undesirable material such as blood clots and infected vegetations can reside in the chambers of the right heart (atrium and ventricle), often associated with prosthetic material such as pacemaker leads or long-term indwelling catheters.
The most effective treatment for conditions resulting from the presence of blood clots or other undesirable materials within the circulation is, of course, to stabilize or eliminate the material before it has embolized. Alternatively, if obstruction to flow has already occurred but before the obstruction has caused permanent harm (infarction, shock, death), the material can be eliminated by utilizing biologic or mechanical means.
Biologic treatments involve the delivery of agents to the material, which either dissolve the material or, at a minimum, stabilize it until the body can eliminate it. In the case of infective vegetations, antimicrobial agents can, over time, decrease the chances of embolization. In the case of blood clots, the agents include 1) anticoagulant agents (heparin, warfarin, etc.) which prevent propagation of blood clots; and 2) more potent thrombolytic agents (streptokinase, urokinase, tPA, etc,) which actively dissolve clots. The agents are usually delivered systemically, i.e., into a peripheral or central vein and allowed to circulate throughout the body. Thrombolytic agents can also be delivered through a catheter directly to the blood clot which can increase its effectiveness by increasing local concentrations but this does not completely eliminate the absorption into systemic circulation throughout the body.
Thrombolytic agents have been shown to increase survival in patients with hemodynamically significant pulmonary embolism as documented by echocardiographic evidence of right ventricular strain. The use of thrombolytic agents is the standard of care in this subgroup of patients with a high 20-25% early mortality. They are commonly used to dissolve clots in other blood vessels including arteries to heart, abdominal organs and extremities.
There are two primary disadvantages to thrombolytic agents. First, every cell in the body is exposed to the agent which can lead to serious and often life threatening bleeding complications in remote areas such as the brain and stomach. The risk of major bleeding complications can be as high as 25% and the risk of often fatal bleeding into the brain can go up to 3%. Second, blood clots undergo a process called organization where the soft gel-like red/purple clot is transformed into a firmer, whitish clot by the cross-linking of proteins such as fibrin. Organized clots are much less amenable to treatment with thrombolytic agents. Thromboemboli, such as pulmonary emboli, can contain a significant amount of organized clot since the thrombus frequently developed at its original site (e.g., the deep veins of the legs) over a long period of time prior to embolizing to the remote site (e.g., the lungs).
Mechanical treatments involve the direct manipulation of the material to eliminate the obstruction. This can involve aspiration, maceration, and compression against the vessel wall, or other types of manipulation. The distinct advantage of mechanical treatment is that it directly attacks the offending material and eliminates the vascular obstruction independent of the specific content of the offending material. Mechanical treatments, if feasible, can usually prove to be superior to biologic treatments for vascular obstruction. Procedural success rates tend to be higher. The best example of this advantage is in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction. Although thrombolytic therapy has had a major impact on the management of patient with myocardial infarction, this option is now relegated to a distant second choice. The clear standard of care today for an acute myocardial infarction is an emergency percutaneous coronary intervention during which the coronary artery obstruction is relieved by aspiration, maceration or balloon compression of the offending thrombus. This mechanical approach has been shown to decrease the amount of damaged heart tissue and improve survival relative to the thrombolytic biological approach.
Mechanical treatment, however, has played a limited role in the removal of blood clots found in larger blood vessels such as pulmonary arteries and heart chambers. Surgical pulmonary embolectomy involves opening the pulmonary artery and removing the offending clot under direct vision. This operation has been performed for nearly 100 years, but did not become practical until the introduction of the heart lung machine. Even then, it was generally relegated to a salvage procedure in moribund patients in whom all other options had been exhausted because of the inherent danger in the surgery and the recovery period. While surgical pulmonary embolectomy is very effective in completely evacuating pulmonary emboli whether soft-fresh and firm-organized clot, it is an invasive procedure.
Recent data has shown that the early outcomes with surgical pulmonary embolectomy are excellent, at least as good as thrombolytic treatment, as long as the procedure is performed in a timely fashion before the patient becomes very ill or suffers a cardiac arrest. The long term outcomes of patients surviving surgical pulmonary embolectomy have always been very good. Although these data have generated a renewed interest in performing surgical pulmonary embolectomy, its use remains limited because of the invasiveness of the procedure. Although minimally invasive approaches have been described, the standard procedure requires a 20-25 cm incision through the sternal bone and placing the patient on cardiopulmonary bypass (the heart-lung machine).
Catheter-based removal of blood clots from larger blood vessels (e.g., pulmonary arteries) and heart chambers has had limited success, at least compared to smaller blood vessels (e.g., coronary arteries). Catheter pulmonary embolectomy, where the pulmonary emboli are removed percutaneously using one of several techniques, has been around for nearly 30 years but few patients currently receive these therapies. These techniques can be subdivided into three categories. With fragmentation thrombectomy, the clot is broken into smaller pieces, most of which migrate further downstream, decreasing the central obstruction but resulting in a “no-reflow” phenomenon. It is sometimes used in combination with thrombolytics which preclude their use as an alternative to thrombolytics. With the rheolytic thrombectomy, high velocity saline jets create a Venturi effect and draw the fragments of the clot into the catheter. Finally the aspiration techniques draw the clot into a catheter via suction. With a Greenfield embolectomy, the catheter with the attached clot is repeatedly drawn out of the vein. All of these techniques rely on catheters which are small compared to the size of the clots and blood vessels. Their limited success is likely related to their inability to achieve a complete en-bloc removal of the material without fragmentation.
The experience with catheter-based treatment of deep venous thrombus has also had limited success. The operator must use relatively small catheters to remove or break up large amounts of well embedded clot. This procedure is therefore time-consuming, inefficient and ultimately not very effective in removal of the whole clot.
It is clear that all of the therapeutic options available to patients with clot or other undesirable material in medium or large blood vessels, such as those with pulmonary embolism, have serious limitations. Anticoagulation only limits propagation of clot, it does not remove it. Thrombolytic therapy is not targeted, carries a real risk of major bleeding, and is not very effective in firm/organized clots. Catheter embolectomy uses technology developed for small blood vessels, does not scale well to material residing in medium and large vessels or heart chambers, and thus is not very effective. Surgical embolectomy is highly effective but highly invasive. There is a real need for a direct mechanical treatment that is as effective as surgical embolectomy but can be performed using endovascular techniques.
Current efforts to apply existing catheter embolectomy technologies to medium to large blood vessels and heart chambers encounter at least two obstacles: fragmentation and excessive blood loss. Techniques which depend on fragmentation of the material tend to be inefficient and ineffective in medium to large blood vessels and heart chambers because the flow of blood will carry a significant portion of the fragmented material away before it can be captured in the catheter. On the other hand, techniques which depend on aspiration of undesirable material will result in excessive blood loss as the size of the catheter increases.
A need therefore exists for a system and method to endovascularly remove undesirable material residing in medium to large blood vessels and heart chambers with minimal fragmentation and without excessive blood loss.